Keto Diary: Week 1

So let's rewind a little... back to the day Nuri and I first shared our feelings for each other. A little bit after the whole "I like you", "I like you too" bit, he asked me "do you have any dietary restrictions?" I laughed and said nope! Then he said "Oh great, we'll get along just fine!" This was very exciting - this sounded to me like I found my foodie partner! However, this became one of our favorite memories to laugh at many weeks later when we realized that although he appeared happy that I was the kind of girl who ate everything, HE was the one with the dietary restrictions! It turns out that many months before we met, Nuri went on a keto diet. But he broke it right about the time we met because I made him sushi twice in two weeks! The first few weeks into our relationship, he went with the flow - he ate the pancakes I made, he made us pasta because he learnt how much I love pasta... But it didn't take long before he wanted to go back to his old healthy habits. See, a keto diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet, this involves reducing carbohydrates intake and replacing it with fat.  This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis.  So by carbs, we're talking about sugar - cake, icecream, rice, bread, pasta, potato... Nuri had cut these out of his diet for many months and he was strict on checking the nutritional value of anything he consumed. This was Nuri before we met. So, after a few weeks of spending a lot of time today, he started telling me about his keto diet. I was interested - I thought stopping rice and chocolate was easy. After a few months, I decided to join, but I wasn't so strict. While Nuri went hardcore, I couldn't resist lasagna or fries, and I didn't know how to eat my khoresht without the rice. But I definitely learnt to reduce my portion of carbs, and eat more salad. Yes, Nuri introduced me to the world of salads!

BUT it wasn't all that easy. My philosophy with food has always been "everything in moderation". I always thought eating moderate amount of anything/everything was harmless. Even though I said I'd join the keto diet, I couldn't stay off the carbs for long, and during the time we'd hang out, I found it difficult making my own food separately.  We both agreed that we enjoyed it better when we could prepare something together that we both could eat. I enjoyed some keto food, but sometimes I wasn't satisfied with just having salad for dinner. So to meet half way, he broke his diet a few times, so that we could have more fun. In December we traveled for a few weeks and our diet went on vacation mode too!  When we returned, we decided to go do keto together but keep Saturdays at cheat days.  This worked for a little bit, but wasn't too sustainable. The little problem with this is that on weekends, we would "go all out" with our carbs - I can't count the number of junk-food parties we had to ourselves.  Even though that was just 1-2 days in a week (because for the rest, we ate clean and healthy), it just didn't feel completely right.  Anyways, we fasted in March and sworn off sugar for 19 days and it was pretty easy! And then... marriage and corona happened! Marriage meant we ordered three large pizzas on our wedding night (all to ourselves) and made a chocolate cake to celebrate one week of marraige (all to ourselves) haha! We were just too happy! But we still ate nutritous food - there was always salad, and dices of onions and bell pepper in our meals. But still, a lot of carbs and chocolate too. And I think at some point, our bodies just started begging us to show some mercy. See, what we eat affects our mood, our work efficiency, the way we sleep, and how our bodies feel when we wake up! Corona meant we couldn't go out on walks, get some sunlight... Corona called for a lot of Netflix and chips. So it was time to do something about our health!

Nuri decided to go back to keto, seriously, from next week. I said that this time I will be more supportive because we've been together for a long time now, off and on keto and I believe I now have a better understanding of what this really means and am more aware of the value and effects. Nuri is a big fan of Dr. Berg on youtube. He watches a lot of his videos, and gets a lot of his nutrition knowledge from him. What I've always admired about Nuri is he makes sure he understands why something is healthy or good for you and not just accept it at face value. I can't count how many nutrition lectures he's given me! I've come to learn that Knowledge is, indeed, power! When Nuri was on keto, he would eat strawberries and whipped cream several times a week as a snack! Doesn't that sound like that would be unhealthy?! But no! Apparently strawberries has low carb content and whipped cream doesn't have that many calories which makes it safe! He got to enjoy, in a healthy way!

I have decided to dive into this diet as well. To be honest, I feel a little bit sad that I have to give up pasta and potatoes! But Nuri made me watch these two videos which briefly describe what really happens to our body. So the first video below talks about how our body will change from running on sugar to running on fat as fuel. It really put into perspective the health value of this lifestyle change.

Nuri made me watch asecond video to assure me that it will be hard the first few days and it's completely normal because your body is adapting to changes, but you will push through. It's very comforting knowing this.

One evening Nuri and I came up with our weekly keto dinner menu. He has done this many times in the past two years, and he knows his stuff very well. But this will be new for me, so he will be here to guide me. I thought it would be nice to write about this experience. I love looking back at these things, and also it would be helpful for when I want to recommend this to others in the future. So here goes!

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Day 1 - May 10
Last night, when I told Nuri that I'm planning to keep a diary for this, he decided to join in and keep track by making voice notes! This morning we both woke up early - around 6am and all of a sudden, he felt like going out for a jog! He came back from his jog very excited! He said it really woke him up, he felt so good and energetic! (Oh by the way, three days ago our government toned down some of the policies. For a long time we were limited to 100m and then 500m walks from our home, but there's no limit now. Yesterday was the first time we went out for a walk!)  In Nuri's voice note this morning, he said that if you're starting a diet and planning to work out, don't do both at the same time. Start with eating healthy, then maybe after a week you can start working out, so that it's a gradual process. So his jog today was just to boost his energy. I will let you know when I am able to miraculously get up early to run with him too!

It's 1pm and I haven't had lunch yet. Until now, I've only drank four cups of water. I'm not yet hungry! An hour ago, Nuri came over during his lunch break. We went for a short walk outside - to go to a place where we could weigh ourselves! I was surprised with my weight - I've been this exact same kg for many years now. It made me happy to know that corona didn't inflate me but I decided to set a weight goal for myself which I'd like to reach over the next few months. Nuri, on the other hand, does not have a dream weight, but he's calling his voice notes project "Road to Six Packs!" Our little walk in the sun a while ago was very good. But let's go back to talking about goals. I've never been the diet kind of person. I'm not doing this to get in shape (but I happily accept it as an extra). I'm doing this because I want to learn to eat healthy - in the long term. I tried keto a few times here and there over the last few months and like I said earlier, I was very happy that I finally learnt to eat salad. But now I want to learn to be completely satisfied with only eating salad for dinner. When I start to crave for mid-day snacks, I want to automatically reach for a glass of water because that can work too! I've seen Nuri over the past several months and the way he LOVES his vegetables. He snacks on tomatoes and bell peppers! He snacks on peanut butter and nuts. He wasn't always like this! He started reading about nutrition on his own, less than two years ago, and that knowledge empowered him to make better eating choices. I remember how I always opted for orange or lemon juice during our lunch breaks, and I'd tell him it's my daily dose of vitamin C, but when he told me that you can get three times  more amount of vitamin C from bell pepper, I totally dropped the juice!

So, until now I've been writing too much! If I keep this up, this blog will be too long! Anyways, it's also just the first day, so I have a lot to say. But now, something I'd like to share everyday is what we're eating!

My first meal at 1:45pm (salad + grilled pork ribs)

At around 5:30pm, I felt a little headache. I'm not sure why, but I just drank more water. For dinner, Nuri and I spiralized some zucchini (first time!) and used last night's left overs (ground meat pasta sauce - tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic). We were done eating at 8:30pm.

Dinner (zucchini pasta + meat sauce)

Day 2 - May 11
Half way through dinner last night I suddenly felt so tired! My energy dropped. I didn't understand why I was feeling so. I also got out of bed pretty late today. Nuri and I went for a 45-minute walk in the sun this afternoon. I felt weak! But we spent most of our walk talking about keto recipes. Nuri has been very excited discovering interesting new keto recipes we could try.  He also said that I might be feeling weak before my calory intake yesterday was pretty low. So he reminded me of all the keto snacks I can have during the day. This will definitely take time to get used to because I'm generally not a snacker. He also said I should increase the fats in my food, so for my lunch today I had the same amount of salad as yesterday but just doubled the cheese and mayo. Nuri also told me to take it easy. He reminded me that he failed 6-7 times when he started keto in the beginning. First day would be good, second day he'd cheat...a few times until he finally got a hang of it.

My lunch at 1:15pm

Second day in a row that I'm having lunch pretty late. So, if you watched the first video, you would see that we're also taking up intermittent fasting. I'm not going to be so strict though - I'm just following Dr. Berg's advice to not eat for as long as you can. Nuri on the other hand is going to take the 20-hour intermittent fast seriously. This means that he'll have his first meal at around 4pm and last meal at 8pm, and within those 4 hours he can eat/snack etc. then fast for the remaining 20 hours. He's done this many times in the last few years, so he feels this should be easy.  Because I felt really fatigue this afternoon, I took a little nap and then made myself a small cup of coffee. For dinner, Nuri and I went for eggs! He made himself a fancy omelete with a lot of veggies, while I opted for a simple sunny-side up. This is what I had:

3 eggs, hotdogs (I ate twice what's shown here), two avocados and some cheese

Honestly, this was filling...but I didn't love it! Although I say I eat everything, but there are some things I'm just not a big fan of. I generally don't like eggs and avocados. I usually eat avocados as a dessert (with condensed milk), and eggs - well, I don't like the white part, so when I make scrambled eggs/sunny-side up, I make sure to break one egg and mix with the white of the other egg (as you can see in this photo...hide the white! haha!) Nuri said keto might not work for everyone, and why it works for him is he loves what he eats. But for me, I'm not kidding when I say I only started eating salad when I met him last year! But I want to learn to like this. I mean, I don't dislike it. I'm just not used to it...yet. I understand that these are all healthy fats that my body needs. It's funny when you think about it - how keto stresses on having lots of fats in your diet. We grew up on the notion that "fat is bad", but now we know it is one of the sources of fuel for our body, and it's good because it keeps you feeling full for longer and cuts down on your overall eating throughout the day. You just need to really understand what are good fats (or else you might mistakenly think you can run on fried chicken everyday!) Here's one of our reference sheets - it's Dr. Berg's list of foods you can eat, and what you should avoid. (link here) This will help you tell the good fats from the bad fats. You'll see that there's so much you can eat! Once you know these things, it will hardly feel like a diet because whenever you crave something you can't eat, you can easily find a substitute from the list of what you can eat (at least that's what we do!) It's actually funny, the list of what to avoid is a lot shorter than the list of what you can eat. But then again, I do admit that a lot of the things we love more are on the naughty list!


Day 3 - May 12
I felt a lot better this morning. I got of our bed on time and had energy! Nuri says I really needed those fats from last night's dinner. Around 11/11:30am, I decided to eat two teaspoons of pure peanut butter. Don't ask why! Well, I know peanut butter is a terrific source of fat for the keto diet, but I've also always seen Nuri snack on it. I decided to give it a try, to see if I like it so that I have another snack option. And it was good!

My lunch at 1pm: three sticks of beef kebab, and a smaller portion of salad

These last three days, me and Nuri's conversations have been mostly about keto! Even during work, he sends me keto videos, and during our walks we talk about it! Today, Nuri asked me what my favorite vegetables and meats are, so he could look for recipes around them and make this easy for me. He also sent me an interesting video called "Keto for women". It's giving both of us a new perspective - it talks about how women go through things like menstruation, hormonal imbalances, pregnancy and these often come with carb cravings. It says that women generally need a little more time than men to adjust to low carb. I went straight in, which is probably why the fatigue and headaches the first two days.

I really liked today's lunch. The kebab was very dense and filling that I wasn't even hungry at dinner time, which is why I ate very little:

Dinner: 1.5 sticks of kebab, two mushrooms, cauliflower bread, salsa and cream cheese

I want to tell you about this cauliflower bread Nuri and I have been making for many months now. Before, we would make keto pizza: the crust consists of grated cauliflower mixed with egg and mozzarella cheese. You bake it for a bit, then take it out and you add the toppings (cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes...) and then bake some more. This cauliflower bread is simply just the crust! We mixed two cups of grated cauloflower, one cup of mozzarella and one egg. Spread it thin on a baking tray and bake until golden brown. Nuri made a very nutritious salsa - he blended tomatoes, bell pepper, ginger, onions, jalapenos, leek. We ate the cauliflower bread with the salsa and some sour cream (sort of like what we would have done with nacho chips!) Generally it was a very good day - no headache, fatigue, no hunger, no cravings.


Day 4: May 13
I'm feeling great today, energy-wise! This morning I prepared a jar of water+mint leaves+lemon, and another with lemon+ginger. Nothing keto-related; I just thought since I'm drinking a lot more water now, I might as well play around with it! I had maybe 6-7 pieces of cashew nuts before lunch, not because I was hungry but ...okay, I really don't know why I ate them. I'm not a nuts person, but if there's one kind of nuts that I don't mind and like just a little - it's cashew nuts! And I found a packet just lying around. For lunch, I took subtracted bell peppers from my salad (same as yesterday). I'm starting to feel that I don't like too much of it. So to make up for this, I drenched my salmon in lots of lemon juice! This is my plate before I added ranch sauce on the salad. Salmon is one of the keto-friendliest meats to eat. It has plenty of healthy fats, a great source of B12 and Omega 3 fatty acids (Dr. Berg mentioned in the second video above that we need these, especially when we're starting out the diet).

Lunch at 1:45pm: Salad, baked salmon, steamed greenbeans

Around mid-afternoon, I made myself a small cup of cold coffee (black coffee, zero sugar/low-carb coffee creamer, topped with some whipped cream and dark cocoa powder). Apparently, chocolate is okay for keto as long as it has more than 85% cocoa. I had this drink because normally after I eat fish, I like to have something sweet to wash the taste away, so I thought of this keto-friendly drink.

In the evening, Nuri and I prepared ourselves a nice little dinner. At first, we were going to have only veggies, but I needed meat! I'm always craving meat during this keto period. So I brought out some bacon. This is what our romantic keto dinner looked like:

Nuri had some salmon and bacon, and he also made some chutney! I don't like chutney so much but he basically blended garlic, mint leaves, coriander leaves, lemon juice and jalapenos. We shared some veggies (carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, kale) and leftover cauliflower bread with dips (sour cream, hummus, leftover salsa). I made myself a little something extra:

I baked four large mushrooms wrapped in bacon!

I discovered that kale dipped in sour cream or hummus is amazing! I also spread some sour cream on the cauliflower bread, and put slices of the mushroom and bacon on it and ate it and that was divine - felt like a little sandwich. It was a pretty light dinner, but very filling. My mental and physical energy today was GREAT! It means I'm getting a hang of this, and quite sooner than I expected! After dinner, Nuri and I excitedly prepared some fatbombs! I'll tell you about that tomorrow.


Day 5: May 14
So after reflecting on my first few days, one thing I realized is that during the first two days -which is when I had headaches/felt very tired- I was keeping myself hungry. I don't know why I kept imagining that I'm fasting for the whole day, or that I shouldn't eat until I'm really really hungry. So I thought to myself, maybe I should snack on something small. I coudn't think of anything at first because generally I'm not a snacker. When I do feel like snacking, I'm happy with a cup of sweetened coffee, maybe a small piece of pastry or some chips and yoghurt and this would happen around 3-4pm.  When I talked to Nuri about this, he reminded me of all the keto snacks possible, and the next question was - which one do I find appealing?  So I'm planning to try a few different things over the next few days until I figured out what do I like. This visual guide helped me!

Last night I made a simple chia seed pudding - 2 cups of almond milk, 4 spoons of chia seeds, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract all mixed in a bowl and soaked overnight. I had around 10 teaspoons this morning. I guess I broke my intermittent fasting with that, but it's not that I was hungry - I just wanted to try it! It tasted very good! Apparently chia seeds is great for keto because it's rich in fibre. I normally get my fibre from bread and pasta, but since we're not having any of that, chia seeds comes to the rescue! I'll take a photo of the pudding next time I make it more fancy - I'll try to add berries next time! Since I felt that I already broke the fasting, I made myself a little bowl of olives and cheese:

Morning snack at 10:45am - black olives, cheddar cheese and cream cheese

My lunch was exactly the same as yesterday. However, I didn't add cheese to my salad because I already had a lot with the olives earlier. When I was pouring my ranch sauce, I was thinking - does this have sugar? Nuri's the one who always checks the label. I have not yet reached the point of calculating calories. These days I tell Nuri what I've eaten and he autmatically estimates how many calories that's given me. His voice notes keto diary is very detailed, with how many grams of this and that. I'm not yet there! But for now, I'm not going to worry too much and instead, rely on him :) But I like how this diet is really making me think about everything I consume. Ketchup, for example contains added sugar. Incase I find out that the ranch sauce I use has sugar too, well I will continue to use it until it's finished (small amounts every now and then just because I don't want to throw it away) and when it's finished, I'll learn to make my own ranch sauce!

My lunch at around 2pm: baked salmon, salad and some steamed green beans

A few days ago, Nuri told me about fat bombs, and I had to look it up! Fat bombs are basically snacks for those on a keto diet - they're usually made from a combination of ingredients such as butter, coconut oils, nuts. Fat bombs are pretty much like our version of energy balls or bars. As the name implies, they're high-fat. So last night, Nuri and I prepared some peanut butter balls! We made two kinds: 

left: keto cheesecake balls; right: peanut butter cups

I made keto cheesecakes - it's simply 115g of cream cheese, 1/4 cup pure peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract! Mix it all together, then scoop and make little balls. I also sprinkled some dark cocoa powder on top, then freeze. Nuri made what tasted like Reese's peanut butter cups (but with dark chocolate!) His process was: melt dark cocoa powder with coconut oil. Pour a little into silicone moulds. Then for the filling - it was just natural peanut butter combined with almond flour. Put it into the mould and then cover up with more chocolate syrup, and freeze. I'm not sure about his measurements because we were both making ours at the same time. 

Right after lunch I had one of Nuri's and one of mine and I LOVED IT! I downed these with a small cup of cold coffee and a little whipped cream. I'm not a big fan of dark chocolate, so I liked the one I made more because I love cheese and this tasted like cheesecake! The cheese made it creamy, and the peanut butter made it a little thick, almost had that crushed graham crackers taste. Nuri loves his dark chocolate, in fact there was some chocolate syrup leftovers and he poured it into another mould and now he has so many mini cubes of real dark chocolates to snack on! We had a lot of fun making these very simple and quick recipes! 

In the evening we went out for a little walk, and then we skipped dinner. I didn't feel hungry at all. But between 6-9pm, I had around 7 thin carrot sticks with hummus and 3 teaspoons of chiaseed pudding. I'm learning that the high-fat meals keep us feeling full much longer, and keep us from overeating/excess snacking. I'm loving this already!


Day 6: May 15
Last night, Nuri wanted to follow a keto "cloud bread" recipe but it didn't work. In one bowl we had the egg yolks mixed with cream cheese and in the other bowl we had the egg whites which we had to beat until stiff, but it just wan't happening! So instead of throwing it all away, I mixed the two together, tossed in some almond flour and cinnamon powder and I've decided to make keto pancakes out of it!

keto pancakes: cream cheese, eggs, almond flour, cinammon powder, vanilla extract

The pancakes came out really thin. I didn't really enjoy it plain because it really tasted very plain. I think it was a mental thing - see, I'm used to eating pancakes with honey or nutella, but even the plain normal pancakes would taste a little sweet. I had one piece with whipped cream and I didn't enjoy it so much, but then I tried it with pure peanut butter and it was so much better! I ate maybe 5 pancakes! 

I had three leftover yokes from last night's experiment, so I decided to bake them in avocadoes! I've done this a few times in the past. Instructions: Slice an avocado in half, remove the seed, pour an egg into each hollow (in this case, I only had egg yokes), then sprinkle what you want on top! I went with salt, pepper and mozzarella cheese. Bake and enjoy! 

Baked avocado eggs

This was a filling breakfast meal which we had for lunch. This was our first meal, at around 1/1:30pm. Later in the afternoon, we went to the clinic. So, something I haven't shared is that since three days ago I've been feeling a new and unusual pain in a certain part of my body. I shrugged it off, believing it might be hormonal. But today during lunch, I couldn't stand the pain anymore! It was getting out of hand, so we went to a clinic to get some tests. And it was what we suspected - an infection. While waiting to see the doctor, I looked at the test I took and they were written in codes and Nuri and I used Dr. Google to try to understand what it meant. One of the test results was "ket", and we found out it meant ketones. Apparently I had a high amount of ketones, among other things, so we quickly did a google search to see if this keto diet had to do with this infection, and we couldn't find anything. When I went in to meet the doctor, I decided to tell the doctor that I was doing this diet. He didn't know about this keto diet, so when he asked what I'm eating, I said "lots of fats and protein". He asked why fats? I said "well, fats like cheese, avocadoes and eggs" and he nodded saying aha, aha. He said he doesn't think this diet has anything to do with this infection, and he said it was okay for me to continue. So I'm happy to say, it's not keto's fault! But after we left the clinic, Nuri reminded me that "keto is really about all these nutritious vegetables you're eating too". And I realized yes! I didn't introduce keto the right way - see, if someone hears that keto is all about high-fat, they might think yey fried food, why not! But it's not at all (long story short - when you deep fry food, they gain transfat which is harmful.) Veggies are RICH in vimatins and nutrients, and have very low calories, some nearly zero - though not all veggies are keto-friendly:

Anyways, I was able to get some medicine and the pain subsided. In the evening, Nuri and I weren't hungry but we still decided to eat some salad because Nuri wanted his nutrients for the day, and I needed to eat dinner before taking the medicine.

My early dinner: lettuce, kale, tomatoes, bell pepper, cheddar cheese, mayo

Day 7: May 16
I feel super great today! The pills for my infection is working, so no pain! My energy is great! For lunch, Nuri and I made our favourite thing to eat on Saturdays - sinigang soup! It's a Filipino soup, but we don't add the sinigang powder. Here's how our sinigang is made: fry some onion, garlic and ginger, then add chopped pork spare ribs (or shrimps or fish - another two great choices!). Let is brown, then add lots of water (it's up to you how much soup you want), and once it comes to a boil, add around 2 chopped tomatoes (chopped into 6 pieces). Then you can add any vegetables of your choice - we often add leek, jalapenos, sometimes some eggplant. Instead of salt, use fish sauce - add until it tastes the way you want. And in the last five minutes, add some chopped bokchoi.  

I always eat this soup with some rice, so a part of me wasn't sure how I'd enjoy just having soup. Then Nuri told me about cauliflower rice. First we blended half a cauliflower (until it's in tiny pieces), then he fried some onions, and added the cauliflower. He seasoned it with some black pepper and thyme. While all this was happening, Nuri made a sauce (kind of like a salsa) he LOVES making. He makes different variations each time, but for today, he chopped the following veggies into very tiny pieces: onions, garlic, ginger, cabbage, bell pepper, tomatoes, leek, jalapenos and chives and cooked all together with some black pepper, cumin seeds, corriander powder and garam masala.  His ideas was to add this to the soup on our plates, just for extra taste. And indeed, when we mixed all these three things in our bowls, it was AMAZING! I must say I was very impressed with the cauliflower rice! It was soft, and tasted like couscous. It was filling, and I was very happy to know that I could enjoy something I've always enjoyed, but in a healthier way. Honestly, when I look at everything we've been eating on this keto diet, it's been nothing but healthy! All these vegetables! Sometimes these veggies don't taste good on their own, but you have to find a way to cook them, mix them, until you find a recipe that works! It's been an experiment-filled week and I truly love it!

Cauliflower rice

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Pork sinigang

 +

Salsa a la Nuri  

= 

We had an early dinner (around 7:30pm). We cooked some remaining pork spare ribs into another of our favourite Filipino dishes - adobo, which is as simple as frying some pork (you can do this with chicken) in onion and garlic, then adding some soysauce! We often add bits of garlic and jalapenos to the sauce while it's cooking. While I did this, Nuri made another serving of cauliflower rice, but this time he added little bits of bell pepper and mushrooms. This tasted very good! I'm still mind-blown with how perfect cauliflower is in substituting rice! Now I can eat my favourite khoreshts! 

Dinner: pork adobo and cauliflower fried rice

And salad, of course

***

So this wraps up my one week on the keto diet. It helps a lot that I'm doing this with Nuri who has months of experience doing this diet, and is the one who is always eager and excited to find new recipes! Right now I plan to do another week of keto diary blogging. I don't know how long I plan to blog this journey - maybe until it no longer feels new. Let's see how this goes!

I'm Back!

Surprise Surprise!

It's been nearly two whole years since my last entry! A lot has happened... where do I even begin?!
Well, I remember posting that last entry to organize all my post according to themes/topics so that you could see everything in one go and let me know what you would like me to write about more! But I never got back to working on that because... I moved! And after I settled down, well...I just couldn't get back into blogging. My days in this new, wonderful place became very full - Apart from my primary service, I spent a lot of my time making new friends, exploring this place, taking classes in the evening, attending deepenings/talks, reading books and volunteering in other areas after my primary service. I was really set on maximizing my experience, which overwhelmed me with so much joy, and believe me, there were many times I wanted to open my laptop to share all the things I've learnt, but unfortunately I couldn't. My experience here has been very uplifting, spiritual, and very personal...and I really found it hard to put it down in words.

For example... this place where I currently live has beautiful gardens! I brought my DLSR camera with me here, but for a whole year I never took it out to take photos. In fact, because I wasn't using my camera, I sold it. I just couldn't capture the beauty. I just knew that no lens could capture the gratitude and humility I feel when I walk through the verdant gardens filled with the sweet but gentle scents of the flowers. I've had the opportunity to attended many inspiring deepenings and talks...I would bring a diary but the most I could note were in bullet points. Everything here just felt so overwhelming and wonderful that I just couldn't write about it. I would just listen and allow my soul be transported somewhere else. I knew all these would be things I'd just have to carry in my heart forever. No poem, photograph, diary page can do justice to the blessings and insights I've gained here.

But I never stopped thinking about my blog. I always thought that one day I would just feel that it's time. Now it does! In March this year I GOT MARRIED! I was bursting with energy and the zeal to write all about how I'm feeling, what I've been learning, and I started having all these ideas of projects with my husband, Nuri! For many people around the world, this corona-down time has given them an opportunity to finally pick on projects that we've kept on hold for so long and this is exactly what this is!

I also came to learn that my domain name subscription has expired so it's back to .blogspot.com and I had to edit all the old hyperlinks. Doing that made me go through all my previous posts and that was very inspiring! I got to remember all the things that I enjoyed doing and writing about. It was also an exciting chance to share with Nuri bits and pieces of my life before now!

I don't yet have concrete plans for how my blog will continue rolling, so we'll just take it one post at a time.

Farzaneology: Archive

Every time someone asks what my blog is about, I say it's a mix of different things - sometimes I write Baha'i-inspired articles, sometimes it's a diary of my travels, sometimes it's about events I set up or attend. In the beginning it most mostly about food. Not so long ago I deleted my instagram account and decided to post my photographs here instead because exactly one year ago I bought a domain name, so I need to make the most of out my blog. Every now and then I update the background, and add new tabs here and there. Now I'd like a new kind of change; I'd like to narrow down my blog themes to three or four themes. My blog will be on a hiatus for one-two months (because I'm moving to another place and the transitioning will definitely keep me off the internet for a while), but when I get back, I'd like to know what you think! Which kinds of blogs do you enjoy reading the most? What kind of blogs do you want me to write more of? 

I've put together an archive, and was able to identify nine themes I often write on. Please write to me (via the message box on the left side of the page) letting me know your top three or four topics, so that I'll have something to think about during my little break and come back better! Thank you xx

1. Bahá'i-inspired

• Bahá'i artists
• Junior Youth Empowerment Program: Artistic Expressions
• Junior Youth Empowerment Progra: Complementary Activities
• Campaign: 7 Bahá'is, 7 years in prison
• Manila: Interfaith Seminar
• Manila: Animators Gathering
• Twin Holy Days: 2016
• Twin Holy Days: 2017 (Bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh)
• Ayyam-i-há: How to celebrate
• Ayyam-i-há: Gift ideas
• Ayyam-i-há: Pass the parcel game
• My Fasting Diary 2017: Week 1,   Week 2,   Week 3
• My Fasting Diary 2018: Week 1,   Week 2,   Week 3
• Halloween-themed devotional gathering (life after death)
• Reflections: Ruhi Book 6  (Teaching the Cause)
• Reflections: Learning to Forgive
• Commemoration of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh

2. Food

• #Farzinthekitchen
• Recipe: Icebox Cake
• Recipe: Cheese cake
• Recipe: Sushi
• Recipe: Kimchi
• Crab cakes
• The turbo grill
• Chia Seeds 1 and Chia Seeds 2
• Home-made pesto sauce
• Olives and cheese
• Dad's kebabs
• Halloween Food: Part 1
• Halloween Food: Part 2

3. Travels/ Local experiences

• Nigeria: My Rooftop Bazaars
• Nigeria: Traditional Filipino dance
• England: The Chocolate Factory
• India: A year of Festivals
• India: Teacher's Day
• India: Desserts
• Philippines: Christmas in Manila
• Philippines: Company Team Building
• Philippines: Palawan itinerary
• Philippines: Road trip - Zambales
• Philippines: Life in the Province
• Cambodia: Local Bahá'i House of Worship, Battambang
• NEW: Travel Tips

4. Photographs

• Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Museum: Mother and Child Collection
• Road trip: North Nigeria
• Selfies in Paris
• Calamba, Laguna
• Flower Festival, Baguio

5. How to's

• How to spend a home-cation in Manila (Easter Break)
• Travel tips: Cambodia to Thailand
• Hawaiian leis
• How to spend a stay-cation in Manila (Christmas Break)

6. People

• Abuja's Boss Ladies
• Nine Souls (project) - Part 1,   Part 2,   Part 3,  Part 4,  Titas of Manila
• Leslie Gomez: Bahá'i pioneer in South Korea
• My Grandfather (the original Foroozan)

7. Published works and advocacies

• Stop AIDS in my lifetime
• Environment: Philippines - Earth Day 2017
• Environment: Philippines - Celebrating the Earth
• Environment: English Greenery 
• Remembering former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam
• Poem: Every String Breaks
• Behind the Scenes: My bicentenary videos

8. Favorites

• A year's reads: 2015/16 Books
• A year's reads: 2015/16 Online articles
• Golden Age Hollywood

9. and every now and then a little "about me"

• Third Culture Kid problems
• Life after college
• What's on my new shelf?
• Dealing with body shammers
• My Happiness Jar (2017)
• 25 things about me

Travel Tips: for your next move

Having a mother from the far Eastern side of Asia,  a father from the middle Eastern side of Asia, and growing up on the West of Africa means I've been travelling left and right since I was in my mother's womb. My first flight was when I was 45 days, and flash forward two centuries later, I've lived in five countries in the past six years...and I'm about to move to my sixth in a few weeks.  Up until I was 15, my Mom would always be in charge of the travel arrangements, as well as packing. I grew up observing the process, and when I started to travel on my own, I learnt a few tricks which have helped make my process of moving around really easy and stress-free. 

1. Be very curious

Some people like to be spontaneous on their trips and just go with the flow but I prefer to do a lot of research and learn as much as I can, so that I can plan ahead -- down to the smallest details like know what kind of charging adaptors should I bring? What SIM card should I purchase upon arrival? What's a typical taxi rate from the airport to the city center? My trips are always planned a good number of weeks in advance, and that gives me ample time to read and even take down a few important notes in a travel diary. Of course, when you get to your destination, you can always ask the information desks at the airport, your hotel, or your taxi driver - that's fine. When I was younger, my parents would always rely on asking the locals every step of the way, but today... a lot of information is already on the internet, though not always accurate, but a lot of very helpful tips from travellers, and bloggers are out there (sometimes even videos!) so I like to take advantage of that. And besides, all the reading you do before your trip only adds to your knowledge; you have nothing to lose! 

Photo of how I planned a self-guided tour for my family, 
when we went to Paris in 2015

2. Find/connect with locals

One thing I feel very lucky for, being a Bahá'i, is that anywhere and everywhere in the world I go, I am always able to find Bahá'i friends, and we immediately feel like family! First time this happened  to me was when I was moving to Sheffield - a friend connected me with her friend in Manchester, then the latter introduced me to a family in Sheffield and that's how I met the whole community there. They became my first friends (I met them the very day I arrived) and they were so happy to show me where to find the Oriental stores, which bank to open an account in and how to book a cab with my phone! 

I've been in Manila for two years now, and I've welcomed a big number of Bahá'is (from Canada, Australia, the USA) who have come here for a visit, because friends of friends connect us. I know that not everyone has a "circle of friends" or a community they can relate to, or feel they can connect with. That's when you can try asking out on Facebook "Does anyone know anyone in xxx?"And you'll be surprised to see how helpful mutual friends can be. Locals are always able to give you so much more than any tour package or travel blog can. You might not also have the time to meet these friend physically or they might not have the time to take you around personally, but having them one call or one chat away really does help you make the most out of your visit. 

On the first week of University in Sheffield, I joined the
Persian and Filipino student societies.
The first group took me out to the best Persian restaurants in town
and the second group invited me to their homes where they cooked Pinoy dishes,
so I never had to miss my mom's cooking!

3. Pack light

I've lived out of two pink suitcases (one for 30kg check-in, and one for 7kg carry-on) for the past six years now. It holds majority of the dresses and shoes that I own, as well as a few important documents. I often leave a few things at home (in Nigeria or in the Philippines) and always try my best to pack light because over the years, I've found myself buying new things from the places I've travelled to, which I want to take back (either for myself or for others), so I always need to leave a little room for that. If there's one virtue that travelling has taught me to learn to master - it's detachment. When I was preparing to leave England and India, I was overload by a lot! So in Sheffield I found a group who buys second hand items (clothes/shoes) and they pay you based on the weight of the items! This was nice, because I was able to use the extra cash to purchase a few new things and replace the ones that I let go. Two months before I left India, my students and I visited an orphanage, and that's where I gave away my old things to make space for the new dresses I had bought there. 

Also, go back to the first tip - do some research. It's important to check the weather forecast of where you're headed to. That way, you'll know the right kind of clothes to bring (light or thick). You should also find out what amenities are available at your hotel - is there laundry service? If not, does your room have a balcony (so you could wash your clothes in the bathroom, then hang them out to dry... that way, you don't have to bring too many clothes because you can re-use the few you bring). 

Photo from when I was departing 
Lucknow, India in 2016

How about toiletries? I know some people are picky about the brands that they use, and sometimes you're not sure if they're available in the place you're travelling to, so you have no choice but to bring bottles of what you need. In my case, I'm not picky. If I'm gone for a year, I pack what's good enough for the first month (I usually bring a few sachets of shampoo and then transfer my creams to little travel/refillable plastic bottles), then buy from local stores when I run out. If I'm out on a short trip, I tend to rely on hotel toiletries. A lot of booking websites/hotels and even AirBnBs indicate whether or not free toiletries are available, so make sure to check. 

my travel zip pouch for liquids

4. Be nice to the flight staff

A lot of people are able to get away with overweight luggages because they think they were "lucky" with the ground staff (ie. the staff was in a good mood). Sometimes, you need to create that luck...simply by being friendly. This is something I grew up seeing my Dad do; he'd always start conversations with the ground staff and flight attendants, always cracking cheesy jokes and making them laugh (men and women alike!) On every single international flight he boards, he asks the flight attendants questions like where are you from? And if he knows someone, or has been to where they're from, he has stories to tell. That's really just his personality, but from observing him all these years, I noticed that he always ends up having a great flight, because he's comfortable to ask for favors you might not even know you can ask for! For example - he gets them to check if there's any available/empty three-seater (middle row) so that he can transfer to and lie down and sleep during the flight. They check, and when they find, the reserve it for him! Sometimes he asks for a tablet of Panadol if he has a headache, and even a free business class travel kit (when he flies economy.) Another thing you probably didn't know you could do is visit the cockpit! He's been making this possible for my brother and I since we were very young. 

on a local flight in Iran, 2016

5. Safety

There are so many things I can say about how to stay safe in a new place you're traveling to or moving to - most of which I know everyone already knows, for example - don't go out alone at night, keep your purse or backpack in front of you, keep your important things in a smaller bag/pouch inside your handbag/bag etc. But here's one tip that has helped me walk the streets of Sheffield alone at night, ride jeepneys in Manila at 3 am, go shopping in open markets alone in Lucknow. That trick is to walk strong and confident. If you're lost, never make it obvious. If you need to take out your map, do it somewhere quiet. If you need to ask someone for help/directions, don't talk in a loud voice, so that others wouldn't know that you're lost. If you're with your friends and you're deciding which way is the right way, don't point here and there so openly; try and do it as quietly as possible. Even if you are feeling scared or worried, try your very best not to look it, so that even though you look foreign (because of your skin), you could easily be taken for a local because of the way you walk and the confidence you exude. The best way to really avoid getting lost, is to double check your maps (paper maps and digital maps) and ask someone you trust (don't be shy to ask them to repeat things more than once!) before heading out. 

DO NOT TRY to pose in the middle of a 
chaotic round-about in Lucknow

Solar Punch-ing Lucknow (throwback!)

"Caring for the environment" is something every City Montessori School student can talk about fluently from Primary school upwards. In all 20 campuses you will notice creative posters about saving water and electricity and throwing your trash in the bins. Each campus has an environment coordinator, taking children out to plant trees and run campaigns (eg. clean the Gomti river, have a cracker-free Diwali celebration). (see more) 

I was already familiar with all of this, but the one new topic to me was Solar Energy. I consider my first lecture on the topic to be the one conducted by Padma Sri Janak Palta McGilligan back in June '15. I had heard about her before meeting her (she's a Bahá'i, and an international multi-awarded environmentalist, and yet so down to earth!) oh you can't imagine how nervously excited I felt walking up to her room the morning of her presentation, to accompany her to the meeting hall! We grew close those three days, we had wonderful conversations, and even after she left, I continued admiring her through her facebook page (look her up! She's a legend!)

Later in the year, I got good news, that Janak didi was coming back to Lucknow (for the International Environment Olympiad). She was bringing with her some friends - a group of solar-powered musicians from the United States who wanted to perform in CMS campuses. My task was to write letters to the principals of three campuses which had the space/facilities (either a field or auditorium), get those campuses to pick dates and time, and then accompany the band. This group was called SOLAR PUNCH.  Despite going through their website several times, I didn't really understand how they were solar until we had their first performance. Basically, their leader Alan Bigelow brought out two sets of solar panels he put together himself. Each consisted of eight solar sheets. He laid these out under the sun, then connected the wires from the sheets to their speakers and microphones. Each of the four members played an instrument (three guitar-like, one drum-like), and two of them sang. Solar Punch composes their own songs, and that's exactly what they sang. One of my favorite was a Native-American inspired song that has lyrics like "we are the light of the moon and the sun, we are the light that's in everyone. We are the turning of the time". 

My videos of their performances are too large to be uploaded here, so for now we'll make do with a few pictures:

Their first concert. The setting wasn't ideal - it was just too hot/sunny to
be in the open field, so we used this covered hall, and the solar sheets were
on the field, getting some sun (the students weren't able to see this, from where they were seated)

Day 2 - this was amazing! The weather was pleasant, and here you can
easily see their solar panel sheets. 

It so happened that the newspaper headlines on this day read "Lucknow the
second most polluted city in India!" So to demonstrate how severe that was,
they wore these masks. They invited students to come forward and give ideas
on how we can have a cleaner and greener India! Very participative performance

Last day was on the rooftop of another campus. Solar Punch had so many songs,
they performed different ones at each campus. But the one that
they always performed was a hindi song Chaiyya Chaiyya (from a Bollywood movie)
it got everyone singing along too! (it's about the rain)

And that's me with Solar Punch, Janak didi and CMS Environment Coordinator 

Golden Age Hollywood

Seven years ago I got a copy of the legendary "Gone with the wind" book, fell in love with it and went searching for the movie. Til date, Gone with the Wind is the only movie I've watched over four times and can do it again at any given point. A series of googling the actors Vivien, Leslie and Clark made made me stumble across other Old Hollywood movies and stars, and it wasn't long before I got hooked! My torrent software had movies from the 20s til 50s lined up one after another. I was in love with the simplicity of the old movies; how beautiful every one looked in black and white; how silly the daydream looked in "Of Human Bondage"; the sounds of tap dancing by Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire! 

This was the first and only time I had what they call "celebrity crushes".

James Stewart (he's always the smart/witty character)
 Gene Kelly (Singing in the Rain is only the tip of the iceberg! He's amazing!)
 Clark Gable (he often plays the tough guy. Manly, and the ladies are always falling for him)

Vivien Leigh (always the stubborn character)
Audrey Hepburn (sweet and impossible not to love)
Grace Kelly (read up on her real life story)

While most people put up photos of their favorite celebrities on their walls, social media accounts, computer and phone wall papers - I didn't go that far; instead, I pasted all my favorite photos in a little brown book! 

Video:

There you have it...one of my biggest passions/obsessions: Golden Age Hollywood. 

I came across the American Film Institute's Top 100 films of all time and it became my mission since six years ago to watch every single one of them. Here's what I've gotten so far (43/100)

#	MOVIE	REMARKS
1	CITIZEN KANE (1941)	✔
2	THE GODFATHER (1972)	✔ (big fan of all 3)
3	CASABLANCA (1942)	✔
4	RAGING BULL (1980)	✗
5	SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)	✔